


Lost in Dream

by ToffeeTaffy



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-10
Updated: 2014-03-10
Packaged: 2018-01-15 07:36:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1296742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToffeeTaffy/pseuds/ToffeeTaffy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Lucrecia.  Everything's alright now.  Omega and Chaos have returned to the Planet.  Thank you.  It was you.  You were the reason I... survived.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost in Dream

* * *

 

Somewhere on the Western Continent...

“Lucrecia. Everything's alright now. Omega and Chaos have returned to the Planet. Thank you. It was you. You were the reason I... survived.”

 

One year later...

I had slept for too long, I know that now. And while at first I did not slumber voluntarily, the full length of my respite was indeed my choice. When Cloud and his company stumbled upon me there in the basement of the Shin-Ra mansion I was little more than a monster. The experiments Hojo had performed on me were painful, cruel, and beyond mortal comprehension. He left me broken, a man filled quite literally with demons. As if these things alone were not enough, the greatest and most hurtful of these atrocities, I suffered at the hands of the only woman I had ever loved.

Lucrecia.

A petri dish of Hojo's failures and near-misses, he left me to die. For once, I thought, he would grant me what I truly wished for. My death freed me. It was after this I suffered my greatest pain, endured the cruellest irony. Lucrecia, the woman I loved, found my body and resuscitated me, infusing me with the Chaos gene. And that is what I became. Chaos itself. The last of her macabre trials was to put Protomateria in my chest, allowing me to negotiate a small degree of control over Chaos. It were these things however that caused my _condition_. I was immortal.

My suffering and anguish consumed me and for a long time I was driven only by revenge and rage. Hojo's death at my hands did little to assuage my pain, my anger far greater than I had ever realised. When finally I put Chaos to rest and forgave my sins I found some peace. I was mortal. I _am_ mortal. Mortality after these many years is strange. And while I still do not look my age, one day I will perish, I will fade from this world. It was in this mortal shell that I was able to sleep... truly sleep for the first time in over 30 years.

And I dreamed.

 

Immediately I knew I was lost in dream. Trees bare of their leaves surrounded me, covering a long, deep valley. The sun hung low in the sky but I was surprised to find that even though it was bright, it emitted no real light. All was sepia. I looked down at my hands, palms upturned. Without my shining gold gauntlet or black leather gloves my hands looked alarmingly fragile. Alarmingly human. In the waking world I appear no different, my fingers are long and thin and now marred with the wear and tear of my _ailment_ , my _living_.

As I stood there, consumed with my own indecision, I heard a voice.

“Vincent.” It whispered. The voice was soft and loving and somehow familiar. “Vincent?” It called once more.

It was then that I realised the voice was not speaking aloud.

“Where are you?” I asked. “Who are you?”

“Vincent?” Was the only reply.

I pressed my palms to my temples trying to free the caged whispers from my mind. Concentrating as hard as I could, I closed my eyes tightly and squeezed my head in my hands. A dull thudding pervaded my mind and then silence. Cautiously I opened my eyes to the forest and found that things were not how I had left them. Some distance away I could see a woman standing under one of the trees. She was tall, thin and radiantly, incalculably, immeasurably beautiful. Her wide eyes sparkled the rich colour of honey and a soft river of golden brown hair cascaded over her otherwise naked form.

“Vincent?” She called to me, her lips unmoving.

“Lu- Lucrecia?”

Gently, she smiled and then she reached out for me. Purposefully I strode forward until I could take her outstretched hand in mine. Once I grasped her slender fingers I immediately began to plant small kisses all over them, tears stinging at the back of my eyes.

“Lucrecia,” I choked, my voice suddenly hoarse. “For many years I wished for only this. For only you.”

The sweet smile fell from her face and she took her hand from my desperate clutches. “Vincent.” I heard her voice in my mind once more as her fingertips traced along my cheekbone, her light, ethereal touch setting my skin ablaze. “I came here,” she continued, “to give you something.”

I watched as she grasped the low hanging branch above us and lightly brushed her hand along the smooth bark. In the wake of her touch spots of the tree budded to life until resting in her hand, was a shiny red apple. It was the only thing of real colour and vibrancy in the amber landscape. She gently plucked it from the tree and offered it to me, her smile returning. Dumbfounded, I took the apple from her and stared at it mutely.

“You've been given a gift.” Her whisper was barely audible at the back of my mind. “Cherish it.”

With my free hand, I reached out to cup her cheek before tangling my fingers in her hair. I pulled her forward and inhaled deeply, letting the scent of her assault me and the first of my tears fall. In that moment I could feel nothing but my need for her, the raw heat I had repressed for many years began bubbling to the surface and I was aching to let it consume me. I choked back a sob and let the apple slip from my fingers so that I could grip her face between my hands and plunder her lips. My kisses were rough and smeared with my fallen tears but she said nothing. My hands were all over her bare skin, kneading, pressing and urging but she did nothing. Slowly she tried to extract herself from my embrace but I pulled her close once more and covered her mouth with mine, stealing her kisses until my lips felt bruised.

My hold on her faltered when I broke in to choked sobs and whimpers, unable to contain all the emotions I had suppressed for so long. She lingered for only a moment in my shaking embrace before retrieving the discarded apple. Her sad eyes examined it; the glossy red skin was deeply bruised and a long cut blemished its previously immaculate surface. She stilled my quaking form with her comforting touch and wiped at my reddening cheeks. Once more she offered me the apple and when I took it, her frown deepened.

“Vincent.” The whispers came again. “You've been given a gift. Cherish it.”

Then I was torn from the dream. The trees seemed to fade away and her glorious face fell into darkness. I woke up suffocating, strangled by my own anguished cries.

“Lucrecia.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is a small piece of what I intended to be a much larger, multi-chaptered work, that I eventually had to abandon. Apologies if it feels too disjointed to be read on it's own.


End file.
